1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates to a gear shift lever apparatus which includes a gearshift lever configured to change the gear shift position by manipulating the gear shift lever swingingly.
2. Related Art
In a general practice, a gear shift lever apparatus is disposed in a center console between the driver seat and the front passenger seat. Since the center console is situated within the reach of the hand of the driver during driving, various layouts are demanded for the center console to improve the comfort in the vehicle interior. To satisfy such a demand, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Sho 63-186310 has proposed a gear shift lever apparatus in which the position of the gear shift lever can be disposed offset in a vehicle widthwise direction while the attachment position of the selector lever is unchanged.
A gear shift lever apparatus 101 shown in FIG. 1, which has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Sho 63-186310, includes: a support shaft 102 disposed extending in the vehicle widthwise direction; a gear shift lever 103 swingably pivotally supported by the support shaft 102; and a selector lever 104 pivotally supported by the support shaft 102 together with the gear shift lever 103. In the gear shift lever apparatus 101, swinging manipulation of the gear shift lever 103 in the vehicle front-rear direction makes the selector lever 104 swing and thereby change the range position of the automatic transmission (not illustrated) through a wire (not illustrated) connected to the lower end of the selector lever 104. In the gear shift lever apparatus 101, the gear shift lever 103 and the selector lever 104 are supported by the support shaft 102 with the gear shift lever 103 offset to one end of the support shaft 102 and the selector lever 104 offset to the other end of the support shaft 102.
Since, as described above, the gear shift lever 103 and the selector lever 104 are supported by the support shaft 102 with the gear shift lever 103 offset to one end of the support shaft 102 and the selector lever 104 offset to the other end of the support shaft 102, the gear shift lever 103 can be disposed offset in the vehicle widthwise direction while the attachment position of the selector lever 104 is unchanged.